Physically Fit for Office

I was not, I confess, entirely prepared when the President ofthe United States shook my hand, looked me in the eye andasked--unbidden--as I was leaving the White House, "You thinkBonds is on steroids?"

This was last Thursday, in the Roosevelt Room, adjacent to theOval Office. Yet it might have been any office or den in America,except that behind us, on the mantelpiece--where you or I mighthave a bobblehead Jeter--was the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

Even so, President George W. Bush proved disarminglydown-to-earth while discussing, for 45 minutes, sports andfitness in America. Said Dubya, on the dearth of dubyas for thelast-place Texas Rangers (the team he once owned), "Right now,they've got the highest cost per win in the history of baseball."He laughed and looked, however briefly, unburdened, Middle Eastyielding to AL West.

I called him "Mr. President," and he called me "Mr. SportsIllustrated," and when I asked Bush which athletes he admired, hementioned Big Texas, which is what the President sometimes callsNolan Ryan, who pitched, at age 46, for the Rangers during theBush era. "His last day pitching," said Bush, with evident pridewhile clutching his right biceps, "was when his muscle snappedand rolled up like a rubber band."

It is a lean frame that supports the weight of the world. Bushevidently doesn't indulge in the candy bars available for worldleaders in the West Wing lobby waiting room, where Jiang Zeminmight help himself to a handful of Snickers. The President pumpsiron--the most powerful man in the world can bench 215--whilelamenting that his workout routine has become, inescapably, tooroutine. "I'm captured in a bubble," the President said. Runninghas become his mistress, but she is a tease, for the onetimemarathoner cannot, as Chief Executive, enter a Fun Run on thespur of the moment. "It's one of the saddest things about thepresidency," said Bush. "There can be nothing better than takingoff and heading out and running the Mall." But he'll never know.It's just beyond the back fence and forever out of reach.

And so he endures the loneliness of the middle-distance runner,turning endless laps, four days a week, three to four miles aday, at a 6:45 to 7:30 pace, almost exclusively on a quarter-milecircuit on the South Lawn. "Listen, the south ground isfantastic," he said, "but you've run it once, you've run it ahundred times."

Seated across from the President was another runner, England'sSebastian Coe, former world-record holder in the mile, two-timeOlympic medalist and, in the past decade, member of Parliament.When Coe innocently asked Bush what he thought of steroids, thePresident had news for the Briton. "We've got kind of a debatehere in America, and you're trying to draw me right into thecrosshairs of the Sports Illustrated writer," he said. "Listen,people shouldn't abuse drugs. And there's an interesting debatein America as to whether or not baseball players should betested. I've always felt like they should be."

Bush played Little League baseball in Texas. "I was clean, by theway," he told the Sports Illustrated writer. And for the record,he gave Barry Bonds the benefit of the doubt. "As we get older,"said the President, patting his modest waistline, "many of ustend to get heavier."

In front of Bush was a blank legal pad, and on the pad was around, candy-cane-striped mint in clear cellophane. It had beenwaiting for him when he entered the room.

"The first organized athletics our little girls played wassoccer," he said at one point, glancing at the mint. "Orswarmball, I guess you could call it." Bush smiled sheepishlyand for a moment was lost in the memory. "They were like littlebees, you know? It was one of my proudest moments when one ofour daughters scored a goal. God, I remember hugging Laura." ThePresident held out his arms in a bear hug. "It was like adramatic event for us," he said. "One of the few athletic feats."

Suddenly the President recalled his daughter Barbara, barely ingrade school, being fouled in a basketball game. "And I'll neverforget the look on her face. 'That's a long way away,'" thePresident squeaked, and pantomimed the little girl looking fromfoul line to basket. Bush crinkled his eyes, which appeared to goglossy, and said, "This little-bitty girl...."

Earlier, Bush had wistfully alluded to a time, prepresidency,"when I was free." And for a moment he was free again, justanother father--inexpressibly human--who counted, among hisproudest moments, a daughter's first goal.

A few minutes later, senior White House counsel Karen Hughesmouthed to a press aide, "Wrap it up." In an instant thePresident was returned to reality, the carriage transformed to apumpkin. In the West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian gunmen killedfive Israeli settlers.